Super Smash Brothers- Brotherhood
by dlahm17
Summary: This is a story about my original character: Kearney. He is transported into the universe of Smash Brothers, where the Brothers (the smash characters and other characters from the different franchises) are fighting for their lives. I will upload the first 8 chapters simultaneously. Reviews are helpful, dont be afraid to tell me my mistakes. More reviews means more chapters. :)
1. Chapter 1: The Box

As a Tuesday morning broke over one particular park you could see a young man, still in high school, walking along a ridge hunched over. He hardly ever looked up, and was clearly deep in thought. A flash of red reflected over the ridge of a hill as the sun hit his dark ginger hair, so dark you may have even mistook it for brown.

This guy, Kearney is his name, walked along the dirt path, his mind racing. He thought to himself as he walked, trying to work up the courage to pull out his phone.

"Just ask her out" he said with the slight burr of an Irish accent, "There's no risk."

Kearney pulled out the phone and started dialing. "But what if she rejects me?"

And his phone fell dejectedly back into his pants pocket. His frustration started to boil over; clearly this was well thought into. "AAAGGGGHHHHH!" he yelled out suddenly, scaring a few elementary age kids who were playing on the side of the dirt path.

While his mind raced it could only think about one thing. The one thing was a 'she' to be specific. Her name is Tia, a childhood friend of Kearney, and one of only two people to accept him, to be kind to him. Kearney picked up a stick and held it like a sword, remembering their past. In his mind a memory flowed through, Tia playing with a flower, picking at the petals and letting them float away. She smiled

"I always wanted a knight in shining armor to come save me, isn't that right, Sir Kearney?"

The words of the past drifted through his mind, colliding with other memories. Tia, Kearney, and another girl named Azure playing with sticks pretending they were swords. Kearney practicing with the stick until he could win, Kearney begging his mom to let him go play with Azure at the park, the trio of them walking along a river.

Kearney threw the stick at a tree, bouncing it right off and into a nearby stream. Slumping over on a rock he looked down over the park he was walking through. It was what every average park would be: skate park, kids play set, open fields, dog park, fountain, picnic area. Looking out at the park caused a few more memories to be bounced around, Tia and Kearney jumping around on objects pretending to be ninjas. That idea worked out well, until Kearney had broken his foot.

Kearney smiled and shook his head like an etch-a-sketch.

"Come on, you already let her be asked out by someone else before, and you remember how that worked out."

He looked down into the stream the stick had fallen in, and saw a white Irish-American looking back. A breeze hit them, ruffling their red hair, and he smiled. Then the smile on his face vanished. Kearney remembered the day around a year ago that Azure had gone missing, Tia and him had assumed she was abducted. Kearney had wanted to ask Tia out that day as well, until they learned Azure disappeared. He picked at his shirt keen to get moving again.

Kearney splashed over to the stick and picked it up again, taking a few slashes and jabs before throwing it again. It arced through the air, twisting and flipping all over until it hit the tree again. The birds in the giant oak tree heard it swinging through the air this time and flocked up as the stick crashed down through the branches. The birds took off into the headwind, flying away towards the rising sun set against an orange sky.

The same wind rustled around Kearney, whipping his tee shirt and cargo pants around his somewhat wimpy body. Some think of him as weak, but he wasn't completely hopeless, he just wasn't ripped.

Kearney ran down to the tree and picked up the stick. As his fingers wrapped around the cool wood, the air around him grew hot, cold, then muggy hot again. Perturbed, Kearney stood up. The second his knees locked a crack like a gunshot filled the air and a flash of heat washed over him, knocking Kearney backwards. He got up coughing out dirt and leaves that were blown around. A flash of light racked through the air like lightning and hit Kearney on his head, blowing him back again. Kearney hit his nose when he landed and his vision grew blurry through tears.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the weird weather ended. Leaving everything as calm as it was before, save for a few stray oak leaves rattling around the path.

Kearney's ears stung from the sound the light made. It left a high pitched whining interjected with muffled yells and explosions, though that may just be coming from the box… wait, what? A box had appeared in the middle of the path, scorching the dirt around it and leaving tendrils of smoke rising.

Apparently the sounds did come from the box, they got louder as he got closer. Kearney took a look around the box, all one piece, all one color: black, and when Kearney tapped it his finger sizzled like a fried egg. When he pulled his finger away he saw it was bright red and raw, the top layer of skin was burned away. Kearney yelled in delayed pain, stuck his burnt finger in his mouth and turned around looking for the elementary kids he scared earlier, they were in the air like they had just jumped off a nearby rock. But they weren't falling, not moving at all.

He came up and tapped one on the leg, no movement, no reaction, it was like they were frozen in time. But that's preposterous, time has to be fluid, there is no stopping it. So they taught Kearney in science, but he understood science to be as fluid as they say time is.

Kearney's phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out. Oh great, it was Tia, just who he wanted to call. He hit the accept button and Tia's voice came on over the receiver.

"Kearney? It's Tia, did something just happen to you?" Kearney looked around again. "A giant flash of light, and now there's a black box in front of me." Tia was quiet for a moment.

"same" she said "I checked on my parents, and they're frozen or something. They wouldn't talk, wouldn't listen, wouldn't look at me."

"That seems to happen often around here" Kearney said sarcastically. "I'm in the exact same situation. Only difference is that my box is in the park."

"what are you doing in the park?" asked Tia

"Uhhhh, nothing. Just walking."

"well I tried calling people, but they won't pick up… you're the first who actually answered their phone"

Kearney smiled shoddily. "I don't know what's happening, but this should make our lives a lot more interesting.

The box in front of Kearney started to glow and hum.

"Kearney?" Tia started "What's going o-AHHHHHH!" The line ended there.

"Tia? Tia! Tia! Damn it."

Kearney turned to face the box head on, "Okay you stupid box, what just happened?" He asked turning towards the humming box. "I was going to ask her out today, you jerk, you ruined that for me."

The box, being a box, said nothing back.

"I don't know what you think you are, but that isn't cool, now give her back."

And with that, the box rose up into the air. A light shone from the inside of it, illuminating layers upon layers of metals, and shot out of the box. It hit Kearney on his chest and lit up the surroundings like a meteor shower.

It felt like fire within Kearney's heart, it burned through him and scorched his insides. And then it spread, to his legs, arms, and head. When it reached his head he felt a pain behind his eyes so bad it felt like he would die, and he collapsed. No life in his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2: Memories

"You okay"…"Hey, can you hear me? Why'd you knock him out like that?"

It was a girls' voice, standing over him.

"Hey babe, I don't know my own strength anymore, you're so pretty I forgot."

Kearney remembered that voice, oh he remembered well. But that was so long ago, middle school, sixth grade. So why is he hearing and seeing this again, he's in Junior year of high school, it's been 5 years since this happened.

He opened his eyes, and the old memory greeted him.

Tia and Azure were standing over him with concern in their eyes, behind them, eyeing Tia's butt, was her old boyfriend Frank. Frank was tall, strong, good with girls, good looking, and a total dick to every guy in the school.

"He's awake" Tia said. "Why'd you hit him that hard?" Frank held up his hands like it wasn't his fault.

"It's called dodgeball, you're supposed to dodge the ball. It isn't my fault wimpy here couldn't get out of the way."

Frank poked Kearney in the foot, sending spikes of pain through him. Kearney groaned.

"hey man, get up, You're making me look bad."

"shut up Frank" Azure replied.

"Well he's got a black eye, goes great with his style."

"Frank" Tia said warningly.

"Hey guys!" Frank called out, "Check out wimp's face, it looks like my dog's ass."

Frank's cronies came over, surrounding Kearney and pushing Azure and Tia out of the way.

"ha, you're right!"

"I don't see any change"

"Looks like a pile of shit normally, now it looks worse."

_Oh, the normal insults_.

"I wonder how ugly his mom looks if he's like this."

_That tears it_, Kearney thought, _they're gonna have their asses kicked by yours truly_.

The assholes broke out in laughter. Kearney tried to stand up, and fell right on his face. Frank offered Kearney a hand up and Kearney took it. Bad move, Frank pulled hard and sent Kearney flying forwards onto his face again.

The jerks were in tears by now, laughing so hard most had doubled over on each other.

Azure helped him up while Tia berated her boyfriend, giving Kearney a chance to throw a sucker punch at Frank. Kearney swung a killer right hook, connecting squarely with Franks gut. Two seconds later Kearney was flying through the air, hitting the ground with a Frank sized fist in his face and blood on Frank's knuckles.

Frank leaned down next to Kearney and whispered in his ear before Kearney blacked out.

"If you try to touch me again, I will fucking shoot you."

Kearney's vision faded, and the last thing he saw was Tia crying over his body, and Azure challenging Frank to a fight. The knowledge that this happened six years ago was all he could remember.

"You okay"… "Hey, can you hear me?"

Kearney opened his eyes. Greeting him was a green haired girl he had never met before. "heh" she laughed and smiled, "You look surprised to see someone like me, I'm Palutena."

Kearney promptly passed out a third time.

"Oh come on already Palutena, I'm not going to babysit the guy who has been asleep for a day already. He isn't going anywhere anyway." The voice was a male voice, but it wasn't deep yet, so maybe it was younger than Kearney's age.

"Pit…" _Oh great, that girl again_, Kearney thought.

"But Lady Palutena"

"Pit, someone has to be here when he wakes up, and I figure seeing someone who looks more like him won't have him pass out again." Said the person Kearney assumed was Palutena.

"Then ask Link, or Little Mac, or even Captain falcon."

"None of them look his age."

"Link does, Lady Palutena"

"Pit, why don't you want to look after him?"

"Well, he kind of crushed my tent, it took me a day to get it set up again."

"Wasn't that the same day you decided to hang out at Ness' place."

"It still took a while."


	3. Chapter 3: The Brothers

Chapter 3 The Brothers

In ten minutes Kearney opened his eyes expecting something ludicrous. But it was just a guy a little bit younger than him dressed in white and in some sort of a tent.

The boy started grumbling to himself "Oh sure, I know I'm supposed to do what you say, Lady Palutena, but this is just outrageous, he crushed my tent."

Kearney sat up, "So, are you Pit?" Kearney said.

"Whoooah!" the boy yelled out, jumping up into the air and pulling out sick looking dual knives. Kearney scrambled backwards against the tent wall. "Hey man, take it easy! Put the swords down!"

"AGGHHH! Palutena!" The boy called out. "Palutena? Link? Shulk? Anyone?" Kearney heard a noise outside, something pinging, and then he heard someone.

"What happened Pit?!" Then a… thing… ran into the tent, with a blaster drawn and pointed at Kearney.

"What is it with you people pointing weapons at me?!" Yelled Kearney

The thing, it looked like a bipedal fox, sighed.

"Really Pit? You make this big of a noise because the poor guy woke up, you must have given him a heart attack." The fox holstered its blaster and walked farther into the tent.

"Well, come on Fox, I didn't expect him to wake up." Pit tried to explain. Fox waved him off.

"For an angel, you act a lot like a kid." Fox turned to Kearney, "You okay? My friend here didn't stab you, did he?"

Kearney tried to wet his lips but they seemed to turn into the Sahara desert.

"No not at all." Kearney managed.

Fox offered a hand… paw, up.

"Well come on, get up off the ground like that." Kearney took the paw and got up, brushing himself off. Pit came over and held out a hand to shake.

"Sorry man, I overreacted."

That was when Kearney noticed Pit's wings. He started to keel over, his vision going darker. When a voice behind him said "Not again" and drenched him with water.

Kearney sputtered, wiping water out of his eyes and turning around. He saw the girl, Palutena, standing behind him with a dripping bucket.

"You aren't going to pass out on me again." She said with a smile.

Kearney spat out a bit of water and muttered "Thanks". Palutena smiled at him, "No problem".

She looked at Fox, "Oh, I was looking for you. I went to talk to Link, he told me to tell you he's in your squad, you're to show him around camp and get him situated with weapons and a vehicle. He will participate in this week's battle game." Fox nodded.

"got it, let's go… uhhh… what's your name?"

Kearney looked around the room at the strange assortment of people, "Kearney, Kearney O'brannen."

"Palutena"

"Pit"

"Fox"

"let's go Kearney." Fox said waving to Kearney to follow him. "This may be a lot to take in."

Kearney steeled himself.

"Don't worry about me, I am not passing out again. With a nod Fox opened the tent flap and walked through with Kearney close behind.

"Wait, is he the only one we got?" said Pit to Palutena, before Palutena shushed him.

Light struck Kearney's eyes and he blinked to adjust. Putting a hand in the sun, he looked around and saw an even weirder assortment of people than what was in the tent.

They walked through the camp with Fox pointing out the buildings. "Sleeping tents in that area, Vehicles in that clearing, weapons, mess hall, kitchen, training fields."

He pointed to each in turn as they walked by, and Kearney saw new people at each area. A blue bird talking to a royal looking man with a high pitched voice. Someone in a racing outfit. A frog was annoying the green clothed man in a hat, a giant turtle and ginger talking to each other. Two beautiful princesses talking to a short man in red and an armed boy in green clothing.

And everyone seemed okay with how weird this was.

"okay" Fox continued "when it is 8:00 we meet in the mess hall for breakfast, lunch is at 12:30, and dinner is at 6. You'll be reporting to me so find me later today when you've gotten armor and weapons."

Kearney paused, sure he heard wrong.

"armor? And weapons?"

Fox looked at Kearney like he was crazy and said "yeah, armor, and weapons. Did you want to die?" Kearney shook his head.

"Then you need armor and weapons in order to not leave the battle in a body bag."

"bat-battle?"

Fox sighed, "I have to go talk to someone for new orders. Do you see the blue bird near the kitchen?" Kearney nodded.

"good, that's Falco, and the man he's talking to is Marth. They're both in my squad, tell them I sent you and you need armor and weapons, then go talk to the toad who was by the mess hall earlier. His name is Slippy and he will get you a vehicle."

Kearney nodded, "Thanks, Fox, but I don't think you need to go through the bother, I won't be here long."

Fox apparently didn't hear the last part, "no problem, Kearney." Fox waved and then pressed a button on his belt and moved twenty feet in less than half a second, making the same pinging noise Kearney heard earlier. Fox walked behind a tent, and disappeared from view.

Kearney walked over to Falco and Marth.

"So here he is, the new guy" said Falco. "What's your name?"

"Kearney" he replied "and Fox sent me to tell you I need weapons and armor."

Marth nodded sagely, "so what are you good with?"

"Good with what?"

"Weapons."

"Oh," Kearney said belatedly, "I'm okay with a sword, but I've never actually been taught."

Falco frowned. "You'd better figure it out. If you don't you will be the one who dies first."

They walked over to the weapons tent in silence, and once inside Kearney's eyes widened. There were swords, axes, blasters, and spears everywhere.

"Take your pick" Falco said.

Kearney walked over and picked up a basic blaster pistol and a simple one handed sword. "mind if I try these out"

Falco and Marth looked at each other and shrugged. They led him over to the training fields, which were close by. Once Kearney was in the middle they walked over to a hidden panel and hit a few buttons.

"Good luck!" Falco shouted, then elbowed Marth in the ribs.

"They're on the first level, so they shouldn't hurt you that bad" Marth yelled out after shooting Falco a look

Suddenly four multicolored robots materialized on raised platforms around Kearney. They jumped down, the platforms disappearing.

Holding the sword in both hands Kearney looked at all four blank faces and focused on a blue one directly in front of him. Yelling he ran forward, charging at the bot. The blue bot held up its arms to block the sword and Kearney swung, expecting the sword to go straight through the arm. But instead when the sword hit sparks flew and chips were made in the robot's arm, but the sword bounced off the arm, leaving Kearney wide open. Taking advantage, the bot then kicked Kearney in the chest, sending him flying into the dirt.

Kearney got up and aimed the blaster, firing at the blue bot. Four shots fired, one shot hit, and it only grazed the bot's leg. The bot ran towards Kearney but the wound made it stumble, Kearney sensed his opportunity and charged the bot again. The bot prepared itself but Kearney hit the dirt at the last second, sliding under the bot. Holding the sword upwards Kearney castrated the blue robot, the robot hit the ground holding its crotch, then disappeared.

While Kearney focused on the blue bot the other three had surrounded him. A fat yellow one, buff red one, and another blue one. The yellow bot kicked Kearney in his back and Kearney fell forward onto red's fist, pushing him into a very solid elbow from blue.

Thinking fast Kearney pulled out his sword and slashed at yellow, making it dodge. Kearney turned and brought up his blaster, shooting twice he hit red in the chest both times.

Red fell with a smoking hole in its chest. Yellow ran at Kearney and bounced on Red's dead body, using it as a springboard before it disappeared. Kearney thrust his sword into the air and yellow fell onto it, impaling itself. Kearney turned and threw yellow at blue, temporarily blinding it. Kearney charged blue and slashed at its neck.

Blue's head hit the ground two feet away from the rest of its body, and quickly disappeared as life left its body.

When all four robots were vanquished Falco and Marth walked over.

"I have to say that I felt that from over there when you gave blue alloy a genital surgery." Said Marth gesturing to where him and Falco were standing while Kearney fought.

Falco held his hands over his balls, looking at Kearney like he would cut his junk off next.

"That was an… interesting tactic" Falco said giving sword a funny look.

"Keep the weapons, you at least know how to use them. Most new recruits can't kill a single bot, they all die in their first battle. But don't worry" he said as Kearney balked. "You show promise, you probably will survive."

_But I won't be here for long, I need to get home. Why are they acting like it's permenant?_

Marth interrupted Kearney's thoughts. "Now you need some armor, back to the weapon tent".

When they got back Falco showed Kearney a few spots he hadn't seen yet, filled to the brim with the same kind of armor, a sort of overall looking set, and a shelf to the left with three sets of some techy looking armor.

As Kearney started to ask, Marth explained.

"These are cham armor" he said pointing to the armor that all seemed to look the same. "Your clothes absorb it and become as hard as armor while retaining their flexibility. Most people here use this as it is simple and effective."

Kearney put on the armor, and it made a weird sucking noise. Hardening over his clothing in seconds, but becoming just as flexible in the next second.

Falco pulled out his blaster, and it was pointed at Kearney's chest.

"WAIT! What are you doi-"Kearney yelled before getting cut off by the blaster's plasma shot hitting his chest.

With the feeling of a baseball bat slamming into him, Kearney flew backwards into a rack of shields.

When he got up he said "Ow, what was that for." Marth frowned at Falco and shook his head. Falco looked at Kearney.

"That's to test the armor."

Kearney grimaced "thanks, Falco." He spat out sarcastically. Marth looked at a clock on the wall of the tent. "You've been here for too long, who did Fox say for you to see next?"

Kearney looked at the time himself, he'd already been in the weapons tent for an hour. "Someone named Slippy Toad for vehicle assignment."

Falco smiled and waved Kearney away, Kearney left the weapons tent and wandered around camp to look for Slippy.

The weather in the camp was just perfect, and the sun was shining its warming rays straight down into their midst. The birds, which apparently do reside in the universe, were singing and chirping up a storm, yelling out mating calls to each other. This camp reminded Kearney of the park he was so rudely forced to leave not any more than one awake hour ago.

He was just walking down to the vehicle clearing when "HEY! HEY! LOOK OUT BELOW" Kearney turned and saw a giant blue space ship heading straight towards him. Kearney dove out of the way and the wing of the ship clipped his armor on the way by, sending him flying, but mostly unharmed.

The ship kept going and smashed into the ground another 20 feet away. "aggggghhhh" Kearney heard from the inside.

"Hey, anyone in there" Kearney called out, he started running towards the ship. Another yell from inside the ship sent Kearney into a full out sprint for the space ship yelling out to anyone "HELP! HELP! SOMEONE'S TRAPPED IN THERE"

When he came to the ship he saw one of the wings on fire and something that looked like an engine sputtering too. He looked into the cockpit and saw a frog in there, Slippy perhaps? Kearney took out his sword and pried open the cockpit.

Smoke billowed out and the toad struggled to get up. Kearney got in and put the frog in a fireman's carry, taking both of them out of the smoke.

"Thanks" said the frog "I thought I was done for"

Kearney looked across the field and saw a ton of people running towards them, led by the short man in red, and the boy in green.

"Mama-Mia" said the red man. The frog yelled out to them "Get the wing and the g-diffuser off the Arwing before they explode."

The red man pulled out a backpack with the word F.L.U.D.D. on it and nodded towards the green boy.

The green boy pulled out a boomerang and threw it towards the ship, from the boomerang erupted a small tornado. The red man then shot a spout of water from his backpack at the tornado. The now watery tornado hit the ship and exploded in a fountain of water, drenching the ship and Kearney.

A warrior with a sword ran up to the ship and yelled "Aether". He threw his sword in the air and brought it down on the broken wing, slashing it clean off.

Kearney looked down at the engine, or g-diffuser. It started to smoke and spark, "Look out!" yelled the frog "It's gonna blow!" The Frog turned around suddenly, tripped, and hit his head on a rock, falling over unconscious. A real fighter that one was. All of the people near started to run away, but Kearney was too frustrated with what was going on to think. He walked over to the G-diffuser and pulled out his sword.

Looking at the g-diffuser he saw that there were wires loose. "Kearney, run!" Shouted Fox. Kearney shook his head and slashed at the wires, cutting them all off, and surprisingly, the entire g-diffuser.

The g-diffuser fell to the ground slightly smoking, but not exploding.

Everyone walked over to the ship and looked at Kearney in amazement "Where did you learn quantum mechanics?" asked Fox.

"I cut off the red wire." Kearney said, kicking the g-diffuser. The diffuser let out a spark and a squeal, making everyone flinch. "And apparently, everything else, sorry."

"I don't know where I am or what you all are, but I want answers. Considering I just saved all of our lives, I figure I've earned some.

Fox looked at the man in red who nodded and gestured to Kearney. "I don't think I have the right to tell you anything just yet, but I can tell you one thing" Fox said, "We are the brothers. And now, so are you."q


	4. Chapter 4: Answers?

This instantly sparked protest in Kearney.

"No" he said, "I am not going to do this, I have to get home! Isn't there any way to get back?" He yelled at Fox.

Fox shrugged and looked again to the man in red. The man sighed and gestured for Fox, Kearney, and the boy in green to follow him. They walked away as the others in the crowd dispersed. Some going to the ship, what did the frog call it, the Arwing, to do maintenance. Most others just went back to training or other activities.

The group of them walked over to the command tent with the boy in green leading the way. Once they were inside Fox started talking again.

"Kearney" he said "These two are the oldest of all the brothers, and our leaders. They call the shots around here." Fox gestured to the fat man in a red outfit, atop his head was a cap with the letter M on it.

"This is Mario, a plumber more often than not, but when his kingdom was threatened he rose up to defend it, he has saved his entire universe multiple times."

Mario nodded to Kearney and shook his hand.

"Its-a nice to meet you, Kearney"

Fox then gestured to the blond boy with a green tunic. A sword, bow, bomb, and boomerang were strapped to his back and side, and he looked like he knew how to use them.

"This is Link, once again a hero of a whole universe, he has saved his kingdom more times than you can count. He is a master of many weapons and a seasoned warrior and explorer."

Link waved to Kearney.

"Geez Fox, you make it sound like I'm all that good. Nice to meet you Kearney, hopefully we can fight together sometime; it would be nice to have someone reliable at my back. Ever since Wario ran away in battle, I haven't really trusted anyone else."

Kearney respected Link immediately and nodded to him. Fox cleared his throat, eager to break up the bromance.

"Link and Mario know more about this than me. I'm just a squad leader, came here with my team."

Link looks at Fox, "you've done plenty on your own, stopped more wars on his own, than I've had with an army." He addressed Kearney with.

Kearney looked around the tent, "well, this is pleasant, but I still need answers."

Link set his eyes on Kearney. "Well you tell us, how did you get here?"

"This black box transported me here."

"Well that explains it" Link said definitely, "We found you and took you here. That black box was designed by us to find the best fighters it could and bring them to us here in our dimension. The box can teleport through dimensions, a little trick we picked up when we were brought over here from our own dimensions."

Mario jumped into the conversation.

"Eight of us were originally sent a-here from our dimensions. Fox, Link, and a couple others besides-a me, are the only ones left. When we had ran from the one who had transported us here, his name was master hand, he sent an army of-a darkness and destruction. When we attempted to fight back we were decimated, so we retreated and stole some of the black boxes he used to bring us here, then sent out the black boxes to find fighters to help us. We figured that if we could get into this dimension, then the monsters could get out, so we fight for our dimensions. We need to contain and kill them."

Fox finished this off, "They've left us alone since we raided them a few months ago, so we took advantage and sent out all our boxes in order eventually fight them head on. We found only a few soldiers in return for our efforts, yourself included. And here's a problem, only you were sent to our camp. The other people from your dimension were separated during transportation, we believe there were two others, and we need to find them. While I don't want to risk other soldiers in a full on attack for two men, the three of us agreed to send a few people to gather up the other soldiers, we also agreed that one of you might have the key to kicking the shit out of the darkness armies."

Kearney shook his head, "who else did you send to this hellhole?" Then his mind went back to when Tia was on the phone.

"She screamed as the box had started to transport me, then that means that she was one of the other people who was teleported to this dimension."

"Who?" Mario said.

Kearney dropped his head into his hands and wept, "It's my…" he paused was she his friend or more, "friend, Tia. She was calling me on my phone when a box was in her room, she screamed as the box warped me into here. I'm going to assume that she was taken too because she had a box in front of her as well."

"Yep that would be us" said Link, "but what in the world is a phone?"

Kearney looked up from his tearstained hands, "what are you talking about? Everyone has a phone, and even if you don't you at least know about it."

Link shook his head, "sorry man, no way I've heard of that before"

Kearney put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell, "this is a phone, it's a way of contacting people in seconds. It won't work out here, there wouldn't be any signal." He hit the center button and turned it on, the display flashed to life.

Fox held out his hand and Kearney put the phone in it.

"What does this mean?" Fox held out the phone to Kearney and Kearney saw the screen had three missed calls on it, all from Tia.

"How in the world?" Kearney said, "this shouldn't be working, there should be no service, how could she call me?"

"Who, Kearney?" said Mario.

"Her, Tia… how could she call me? She called me while I was here, this is impossible." Kearney unlocked the phone and put it to speaker while the messages played back.

"Kearney, hello? Kearney, can you hear me, this is freaking me out. Please pick up."

"Kearney, the black box took me somewhere, are you here too? There was a black box by you too, right? Pick up the phone, dammit."

"Kearney, what is going on? No one's phones will connect to me, except for yours, are you here?"

Link looked at the device, "so that's what it does, you talk to people with it. Can she hear me, she sounds pretty." He leaned close to the phone "HELLO! CAN YOU HEAR ME? MY NAME'S LINK!"

"I don't think that will wo-" Kearney started before

"CAN YOU HEAR ME!" Link shouted again.

"Cut it out Link, she can't hear you." Said Kearney

"But she was just speaking from that." Link pointed out

"Those were recorded" Kearney replied.

All of a sudden, a girl walked inside the tent. She was, well, beautiful. A crown rested on her head and a long flowing dress held the same symbol as on Link's shield.

When she walked in Link stopped mid-reply and tried to say something, but before he could get far the girl bonked him on the head.

"Everyone in the camp heard you yelling you dork. We know who you are, why were you yelling?"

"Well there's this girl I was talking to using that device, Zelda." Link said pointing to the phone.

"mama-mia" said Mario looking at Kearney, "we might-a want to get out of here."

"wait" Zelda addressed Kearney, "is that the device?" she asked while pointing to the phone in Link's hand.

Kearney nodded, "good" said Zelda.

Mario hustled Kearney and Fox out of the tent and plugged his ears. Kearney wondered why, then he realized.

A high pitched yell escalated from the command tent and flew out over the fields and into a forest. Link left the tent with his ear in Zelda's pinched fingers, and an imprint of a phone in his left, right… er… everywhere. A few screen fragments were imbedded in his nostril like porcupine spines, the power button was lodged in his teeth, and the home button was in his ear.

"Zelda, Zelda, OW! ZELDA! OW! THAT HURTS!" He was yelling as he was dragged away.

"Don't get on the wrong side of Zelda," said Fox "especially if you're her boyfriend, she gets very jealous."

As if on cue Zelda cut Link's cries of pain off with another bonk on the head. "Don't ever go yelling for another girl" While she was talking Link tried to scurry away.

"Zelda, it isn't like that, I was trying to help Kearney over there find his girl. That's who I was yelling for."

Zelda looked at Kearney with fire in her eyes and magic dancing along the edge of her fingers. She dropped Link to the ground and started storming towards the small group of three.

"Oh shit." Said Fox and Mario together, and ran off in the other direction. Kearney was too slow and Zelda was in front of him before he knew it.

"I think this is yours." She said, holding out what remained of Kearney's phone. Kearney took the pieces from her and cut his finger on the jagged glass.

"thanks." Kearney said sarcastically.

Mario and Fox walked up to Kearney as Zelda walked away. "Is she gone?" said Mario.

"Yeah" Kearney replied holding up the phone remains, "oh shit", said Fox looking at the damage.

Kearney looked dejectedly at the phone, "This was my last chance at talking to her." He said.

"not really," said Mario "you can still find-a her"

"Fine." Said Kearney grudgingly

Suddenly the frog from the Arwing ran up.

"Hey Slippy," said Fox, "You're awake."

Slippy waved Fox off, "There's a better reason than my bad flying for why I crashed in the vehicle field," he said, "There's a squad of hostiles closing in from 100 miles south. They have heavier ships than mine, so I outran them, but not before taking heavy damage."

"How many." Said Mario, instantly serious.

"There were five of their standard Zeus carriers, and each one can carry a maximum of 50 men armed to the teeth."

Fox looked at Mario, "250 men, versus our 30 odd still at camp and another 20 who can be brought in from scouting regiments."

Mario looked down thoughtfully, "How many men can we have in the air, Fox?"

Fox looked at him with a shine in his eye, "my squad of 6, wolf's squad, and 2 others can take on the Zeus ships." He looked at Kearney, "Let's go".


	5. Chapter 5: Preparation

Fox and Kearney walked into the sleeping areas, Slippy following close behind.

"We need to alert the camp," said Fox "That will be Mario's job, he will sound the alarm. Our job is to scramble our squad and get in the air."

Fox started to run towards a clearing that was near the left-ish area of the sleeping compounds. Kearney rearranged his sword and gun holster and took off after him. Slippy yelled out a phrase and tried to run, but quickly fell behind.

When Kearney and Fox got to a clearing, they were surrounded by tents in a semicircle.

"ALRIGHT MEN!" bellowed Fox, "GET UP AND OUT, WE NEED TO BE IN THE AIR! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

"They are all dead asleep." A voice said from behind them, it was Marth. To his left was Falco who explained.

"There was a party at Sonic's place last night. Most of the squad went there, I doubt any of them slept last night. The only ones who didn't go were the two of us, Conor, and Cipher. Oh yeah." He added as an afterthought . "And Slippy. He wasn't invited."

"Was too." Huffed Slippy as he ran in from behind them. "I was just… hanging out, with Amanda."

Falco whistled and winked, "You two getting serious?" he said condescendingly.

Fox told them to shut up.

"See those buckets above the tents." He whispered to the group while pointing.

"Well I stuck them there for a reason, and this is a perfect time to try it out." Fox then pulled out his blaster and shot the bucket twice, effectively melting the bucket.

"The bucket I had attached to the supports of the sleeping tents, it's effectively the keystone to the tent, and when that thing falls…"

As if to demonstrate, the weakened bucket fell away, along with the whole tent, onto the occupants inside.

Fox waved his hand across his body, inviting them to destroy the buckets.

Kearney and Falco simultaneously pulled out their blasters and started firing at the tents, melting all the buckets. Slippy tried to help, but succeeded in only getting close to shot.

The groggy occupants of the tents slowly got out of the wreckage.

"What was that about Fox" said a blue vixen with a British accent.

"Yeah, Fox, we were sleeping." Exclaimed a panther.

When what looked like everyone had gotten out of the tents Fox addressed the lot.

"I'm sorry about that, Krystal, Panther, but you weren't waking up and we need to get into the air."

A gruff voice spoke out from the small crowd, "well why we need to be in the air?" It was a wolf picking himself out of a tent.

"There's a coming battle, everyone. We're going to thin out their lines before the enemy gets here."

That phrase got everybody's interest. They stopped rubbing their eyes and yawning, and started to grin and nod.

"Everyone meet me in command tent in ten minutes, and I expect those tents to be set up when you get there." Fox turned away and started walking, "Kearney, you know Falco and Marth, so you can bunk with those two. Now get to work on your tent!"

Kearney looked at all the broken down tents, Falco and Marth walked over to the tent that Kearney had shot down himself.

"Good job, Kearney" Falco uttered, Kearney grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry guys, I didn't expect this to happen."

"Just go hold down that peg."

In the next five minutes the group worked on the tents, Falco and Marth introduced Kearney to the rest of the squad, except for two of the people who weren't there and Fox himself.

There was Peppy Hare, a rabbit older than the greeters at Walmart.

Wolf O'Donnel, Fox's rival who had his own team of himself, Panther Carosa, and Leon Powalski. All of them were anthropomorphic animals.

There was a pink frog. "She's Slippy's girl, her name is Amanda." Falco explained.

"And next to her is Krystal, she's Fox's girl, don't mess with her."

Kearney looked up, but only saw Amanda. Then a voice with a British accent spoke up from behind him.

"So you're the new guy." The voice belonged to Krystal, the blue vixen.

"Yeah" said Kearney distractedly, making himself busy with nailing down a stake.

"Well he's interested in what power you have to offer the brothers, he thinks you have potential to become a leader. Beating four alloys on level nine with no training, that's something to show how good you are."

Kearney looked over at Falco and Marth accusingly, "I thought they were on the first level."

Marth looked away and started putting the bucket back on the top of the tent. Falco grinned, "well, that was just to see how you did. I'm glad they didn't kill you, 'cause that would mean a lot of paperwork."

When Kearney looked back at Krystal a weird thought crossed his mind, "Wait. How do you know all this, Krystal?"

The blue vixen smiled slyly, "I might not be Fox's second in command, but he tells me things. And everyone fights the level nines for their first fight."

"OW!" yelled Marth as a rope snapped and hit him in the head, "Grab that rope, Kearney!"

Krystal walked off to her and Lucy's tent. "Where's Cipher." She said to Lucy.

"Oh she's at the training field, as always" Amanda replied.

"Who's at the training field?" Asked Kearney.

"Oh, she's another human, her name is Cipher. She's been here for about a year, and she's one of our best fighters, she can even kick Falco's butt." Lucy said.

"I let her win." Falco said belatedly.

"No you didn't, and as I remember you even tried to cheat." Another unidentified voice said from once again behind Kearney. The voice belonged to a girl the same height and apparently age as Kearney. She had blue eyes and brown hair, with orange sunglasses that have targeting systems on them. She had a black jacket and steel greaves on her left arm. A high tech katana was strapped on her hip. High laced boots and half gloves finished off the look.

"As far as I remember my blaster isn't cheating, Cipher." Said Falco. "It doesn't matter, anyway, you beat me."

Cipher put her hands on her hips and struck a look at Falco.

"It was a fight with training swords; your blaster was against the rules." She smirked, "not that you could beat me anyway."

Falco sputtered in indignation.

"Stop it you two." Wolf had spoken up. "The tents are done; let's go meet Fox at the command tent."

Cipher had a puzzled look on her face, "Why are we going to command?"

Wolf shrugged. "Enemies inbound, we're going to thin their lines, and maybe finish the battle before it starts."

Cipher nodded, and with that the group of animals and humans walked off.

"You're late." Said Fox as they walked into the tent.

"Sor-" Started Falco before being cut off by Cipher.

"It's my fault, I arrived too late to help with the tents. Though it appears someone else hadn't arrived either." She did a head count. "There's the same number, but something's off. You." She pointed at Kearney. "You're new, aren't you?"

Kearney nodded, "Yeah, I'm Kearney. It's nice to meet you, Cipher." He held out his hand to her.

"Kearney?" She asked, not taking his hand. "Not a very common name, what's your last name?"

"O'Brannen, it's Irish. My grandparents came to the states from Ireland."

A glint flashed through Cipher's eyes and she had frowned. Then it was over and she took Kearney's hand.

"Nice to see you, Kearney."

Fox spoke up. "As to the other member of the squad missing. I found Conor last night going to the party. He had forgotten to do his cleaning duties for five days now. So I set him up on guard duty aboard the Great Fox."

The tent door opened again and a little pink ball entered the room. It let out a squeak that sort of sounded like the word 'hi'. The pink ball waved its stubby arms and Kearney's heart almost melted from adorable overload.

Fox disclosed why it was here. "Kirby here offered to help a boarding crew onto the Zeus ships. We want to capture at least two in order to see their capabilities and assimilate new tech. Samus had offered to help the other boarding party with the second ship. She is landing her craft aboard the Great Fox and won't be at this meeting, you guys brief her later."

Fox then pointed to a diagram on the left side of the tent.

"This is what we will be up against. The Zeus drop ships, five to be exact, are inbound to our location. Since the last main camp was destroyed, we have used this camp to house our commanders. We must defend this point, the Zeus ships will arrive in one hour unless we stop them. We are going to shoot down three of them by eliminating the weak engines and their bridge. They have guns on their sides and will be armed to the teeth, so watch out."

Fox drew Xs on the engines and bridge of the ship.

"The Zeus ships use the exact formations every time, so assume that when the first three ships are eliminated the remaining two will spread out and decrease engine output to give higher power to shields. When that happens the two boarding teams will approach from below and blow a hole in the bottom, avoid shooting the stabilizers as that will down the ships too quickly. The first boarding group is comprised of Samus, Wolf, Panther, Lucy, and Falco. The second contains myself, Kirby, Cipher, Conor, Slippy, Leon, and Kearney. Krystal and Peppy will man the Great Fox while we're gone and keep a watch on the Zeus ships"

Fox paused and took a look around the tent. "Any questions?"

The group snapped to attention completely silent. Kearney didn't expect that to happen and snapped to attention afterwards.

"Good, move out."

The group went to the landing field where Slippy's smoking Arwing was being repaired and turned left towards a forest. Kearney followed close behind, keen not to get lost.

"Kearney" said Cipher behind him.  
"What is it with you people and surprising me by talking unexpectedly. What?"

"Do you remember me?"

Kearney looked at Cipher in shock, "What?" he repeated.

"Do you remember me?"

Kearney almost walked into a tree, "Why would I remember you?

"Because I remember you. You are Kearney O'Brannen, a Junior in Buren High school, commonly called booty high. I knew you until around a year ago, when I went missing."

This time Kearney actually did walk into a tree.

"Azure?" he said while holding a bleeding nose. "Azure" he repeated.

She walked forward to him and hugged him. "Yeah, it's me, it's been a long time Kearney."

Kearney hugged her back. "A year if I remember correctly." Azure chuckled. The two of them started walking to catch up with the rest of the group, they were getting away.

"So what's up with this Cipher thing? Why does everyone know you by it, isn't it your last name?" Kearney said to her.

Azure smiled, "It is, but I don't really have friends here, so I never told them my first name. What happened after I disappeared?"

"Oh, Tia and I alerted the police and were pulled in for questioning and all that. They seemed to think that we had abducted you."

"I forgot about Tia, how is she doing? I remember that the three of us were nigh inseparable back in the day. At least whenever Tia didn't have a boyfriend, which was half the time".

Kearney stopped.

"She… she… she's been trapped, here."

Azure gasped. "Where?"

"We don't know. Zelda whacked Link with my phone and now it's broken."

"What does your phone have to do with finding Tia?"

Kearney pulled out his phone. "For some strange reason our phones work here, and Tia sent me calls."

Falco looked back and yelled at the two laggards, "Hey slowpokes, we don't have all day!"

"Got it Falco" Kearney yelled back, Azure and him started to hurry.

"We need to find Tia and get out of here, this place is not welcoming to those who can't fight." Azure was saying.

The squad entered a large clearing in the forest; in it was a giant white ship with a massive laser in the front and cannons dotting the sides. On its aft was an opening that an orange ship was flying into.

This felt to Kearney like somebody strangely ripped off Star Wars.

"No way" he gasped. "This thing is huge, no wonder the call it the Great Fox."

Fox smiled at Kearney and pulled some keys out of his pocket, he then tossed out the keys to Peppy who caught them without even looking.

"Don't worry, Kearney. It feels smaller on the inside."

That was a total lie. To Kearney every hallway and room seemed massive, and each corridor appeared to stretch out forever.

As the group was walking towards the bridge Azure split off and hung a right. Falco turned around and addressed Kearney.

"I'm going to show you where you'll be for the attack." Falco took Kearney down two halls and hung a left. Then they were in a room with a glass view to the outside, in it was a turret with controls connecting to a computer and some hand grips with buttons.

Falco touched the computer to turn it on and entered a strange hand wave to unlock it. The screen leapt to life, showing an Infrared view of the forest.

"You are going to be a gunner."

Kearney started, his mind automatically going to Star wars.

"Like, with a laser?"

Falco showed him the buttons on the hand grips.

"Select ammo with the side buttons. We have rockets, standard flak shells, and lasers."

Kearney let out a laugh and jumped happily, thrusting his fist in the air. Falco sighed.

"Like I said, lasers. I think that's the only ammunition you'll be using for today. The other ammunition isn't replenishable and we haven't had a shipment of 'munitions for a while. Fire using the top buttons. You can also tap the computer to get a lock onto the enemy heat signatures."

Falco hit another couple of buttons on the computer and a chair rose out of the floor in front of the turret, Kearney happily jumped into the chair and gripped the handles.

Falco continued. "This area is armored a little more than the rest of the ship, but since there's only you and two others on cannons you might be targeted by the Zeus artillery. Good luck."

Falco left with a hard smile and the door shut behind him on Kearney.

With that the ship underneath Kearney shuddered as the engines started and stabilizers fired, and they were taking off into the clouds before Kearney even understood what Falco had said.


	6. Chapter 6: Out of the frying pan

The Great Fox skimmed the forest as they approached the area the Zeus ships were supposed to be in. Kearney hit a button on the computer and zoomed in on a small speck in the distance.

The infrared view slowly got closer to the speck, until it split into tents and fields. It was the camp that the group had left behind around twenty minutes ago. The trip had been relatively smooth, and Kearney had gotten pretty bored. So he decided to learn what all the buttons on his console did. A few exploding trees later and Fox's face showed up on the computer screen and told him to cut it out. So Kearney went back to being bored.

A few minutes later and Fox's voice came on over some sort of a p.a. system.

"Attention, everyone. We will have visuals of the Zeus dropships in around thirty seconds. When in range, fire on sight, but only at the first three ships. We will have several of our own fighters out there, so look before you shoot."

The next thirty seconds were the longest of Kearney's life. His heart beat a hole through his ribs. His hands grew sweaty and he wiped them on his shorts, regaining a steady grip on the turret handles.

Then the Zeus ships showed up on his computer screen. He enlarged the view and set it to standard visuals instead of infrared, he finally saw the ships properly.

They looked like giant fat, gray Doritos, with a little bump on the front of the triangle. On the back were massive engines, and on the top was an opening to a hangar.

"Here they come!" Peppy yelled over the intercom.

He was right, from the hangar of the Zeus ships flew ten fighters each, fifty fighters in total.

The fighters were smaller versions of the Zeus ships, just with the aft concaved.

"Fighters, wait until their first volley to launch." Peppy belted out through the intercom. "Gunners, fire at will."

Kearney aimed the sights towards the bulk of the fighters and pressed the red 'fire' buttons.

Green energy spit from the dual barrels and blasted towards the fighters, before they had even gone ten feet a second blast had followed.

The hand grips thrummed underneath Kearney's palms, and the lasers spit their deadly fire again and again, but no exploding enemies rewarded Kearney's efforts.

"Brace yourselves." Peppy yelled, "We're in range."

Kearney saw flashes of light appear from the fighters and fly towards the Great Fox. The first volley hit the Great Fox and rocked it so much that Kearney was surprised they didn't go down then and there.

The fighters started passing by the ship and an explosion rang out from behind Kearney.

Azure's face appeared on Kearney's screen.

"What was that? Was something vital hit?"

Kearney shot a few rounds off , "No clue."

Then a new voice broke onto Kearney and Azure's channel.

"Suck it, newbies, first kill goes to me."

A new face had appeared at the bottom of the screen. It was of a college aged guy with grizzled white hair deceiving his apparent age. Suddenly, another explosions rang out.

"WAHOOO!" yelled the guy.

Kearney focused on the ships passing by the Great Fox and lined the computer's targeting system up to one. When the computer inputed the coordinates Kearney lined up the turret and spit fire at the nearest ship. An explosion racked the air as the enemy ship had exploded into flame and fell to the treetops below. Kearney shouted in joy.

"Third kill to me. Don't get too cocky."

The Great Fox rocked again and Kearney felt something towards the aft. It was the Arwings. Fox's face showed up on the computer screen.

"We have our own fighters out there now. Don't fire near our men, we don't want another mistake, Conor." The last sentence was directed to the college guy.

"Yessir!" Conor yelled out. Then Panther's face showed up on the screen.

"Yeah man, my Wolfen hasn't been the same since you shot it down, Conor."

Conor grinned apologetically, then took down a few more fighters.

The Brother's ships took a volley at the enemy fighters, downing a few, then split off and took on an enemy in a dogfight.

Kearney saw some of their fighters as they passed and realized they were red and much faster, those must be the Wolfen Panther mentioned.

Several explosions racked the air. The Zeus ships had started firing on the Great Fox.

"Return fire!" Yelled Azure, "Aim for their bridge."

Kearney rotated the gun towards the nearest Zeus and opened fire. In around twenty seconds it was clear that they were doing nothing to the Zeus ships. Falco then appeared on screen to reprimand the Great Fox's gunners.

"Target their artillery." He said, "We need cover out here."

"But we need to down their ships!" Kearney replied.

"Only a smart bomb or the main cannon can do that, our Arwings need cover or we won't last another ten minutes."

Kearney put the turret down ten degrees and aimed for the area the lasers originated, the hull there was apparently weaker, as there were explosions wherever the blasts hit.

Fox's face reappeared on the screen.

"We're charging up the main cannon, brace yourselves."

A high pitched ringing sound filled the air, then a major explosion blasted through it. Turning the turret Kearney saw the first of the Zeus ships fall, a massive hole punched through it.

"Was that the main cannon?" he asked.

Conor responded.

"Yeah, only problem is that it is a very vulnerable part of the ship and it takes forever to load."

Another enemy fighter exploded to Kearney's left and he refocused on the battle. The fight was going better than expected, more enemy fighters fell to the Great Fox's gunners, and another Zeus fell to the massive main cannon. Then the battle took a horrendous turn.

The remaining ten enemy fighters broke off and swarmed around the final three Zeus ships. One Arwing flew towards the swarm, it was Amanda. She yelled to the Great Fox over her com: "They are in range of a smart bomb, I only need one shot."

Fox yelled back at her over the computer, "Get back, Amanda, that's some kind of trap."

Her Arwing peeled off to the right but it was too late. The fighters all took after Amanda and got on her back. She barrel rolled and peeled off again, trying to shake them off her tail.

"Slippy!" she shrieked into the com. "Help!"

The enemy fighters tracked her movements and let off a salvo of lasers.

Amanda dived and shrieked for Slippy again. "I can't get them off me!"

She pulled out of the dive and hooked under the Great Fox, the rest of the Arwings started attacking the virtually undefended Zeus ships. Kearney, Azure, and Conor all let off desperate shots as the enemies passed, hoping to take one down, thankfully a few explosions graced their efforts.

Only four of the fighters remained after their stint around the Great Fox, they fired a second blaster salvo, and this time one of the shots clipped the base of Amanda's left wing.

She shrieked a third time and tried to pull up. Slippy's Arwing blasted past the Great Fox, trying to cut off Amanda's Arwing.

"Amanda!" he yelled, "Don't strain the wing! Even out and let me take shots at their fighters!" He launched a small red object towards the remaining fighters and scored a hit and blasting the fighters tailing Amanda into oblivion. Amanda heard the explosion roar behind her and attempted another barrel roll.

"No!" Exclaimed Azure. "No! Amanda!"

Amanda's left wing tore off completely.

Kearney and Azure both stopped firing, transfixed at the horrible scene above them.

Amanda's Arwing did a pirouette in midair, then plummeted straight past Slippy's towards the treetops.

She screamed as she fell, her voice piercing their ears and minds as her terror was instilled in them. Slippy yelled and turned his Arwing around, splitting the air like a hot knife through butter. He raced to catch her, going faster and faster. He blasted off towards the ground, breaking the speed barrier in the process.

Yet, he was too late. Amanda's Arwing fell straight into the canopy of trees and vanished in a fiery sheet.

Slippy pulled out of the dive and sobbed into the computer.

"No, Amanda… why."

His Arwing sharply turned around and pointed towards the remaining three Zeus ships.

"DAMN YOU, BASTARDS!" He yelled. His Arwing accelerated towards the Zeus ships, his anger apparent in his piloting. "Fox! Is the main cannon operational?"

Fox shook his head, regret in his face as the reality of losing a teammate sank in. "I'm so sorry, Slippy. The fighters disabled it in their second pass around the Great Fox."

Wolf joined into the conversation.

"Slippy, you'll get your chance at revenge personally. Our ships have taken too much of a beating, Fox. If we stay out here, Amanda won't be the last to fall. We need to board them now, otherwise we have no chance for victory."

Fox sighed, "Fine. We'll split into three groups instead of two. Conor, Cipher, Kearney, and I will be the first. Wolf, you and your team will take the second. Whoever's left needs to capture the third Zeus. Kearney, Conor, Cipher, meet me in the hangar.

Kearney jumped out of his chair and hoisted up the sword and gun. He ran out of the room and looked down the pristine white hallway. To his left, Azure left a room and looked his way, she waved and yelled for him to follow her.

"This way!"


	7. Chapter 7: Boarding

When Azure and Kearney reached the aft of the Great Fox, Fox was waiting with his Arwing ready.

"Get in!" he belted out at the two then looked around, "Wait. Where's Conor?"

Then they heard the clacking of sharp boots on laminate. From behind them a voice yelled out, "Hey! You leaving without me? Wait up!"

It was Conor, he had a black cloak over his clothing, and on his back two SMGs were belted on.

"I had to pick up my guns before heading over here, figured we could use the ranged firepower."

Fox waved at him to hurry up, "Get in already! Did you stop for dinner too, this shouldn't take this long. We have to go, now!"

Conor, Azure, and Kearney climbed into the back of the Arwing, and buckled themselves in. Fox gunned the engines and they shot out of the Great Fox.

Kearney looked around and saw the whole battle. The Great Fox was flying in the distance behind them, as graceful and majestic as it could be while being pummeled by the gunners in the Zeus ships. There were fires breaking out in the distance where shots that missed went to. The tops of trees were blown off and leaving smoking caps, the massive wildlife that easily reached hundreds of feet in the air were sometimes lying on their sides, and even launched into the air by explosions at their bases.

Fox deftly piloted the Arwing through all the lasers flashing past their faces, and under the farthest Zeus, thankfully there were no cannons under the Zeus or they would be a sitting duck.

"We need to try to take these ships down quick, otherwise the Great Fox won't last long and we'd either need to retreat or get stranded in the middle of nowhere."

The Arwing flashed past the middle of the Zeus and a small red circle dropped out of the front cannons. It slowly drifted upwards towards the bottom of the Zeus, and Fox sped to the other end of the Zeus' underside.

The red circle bumped against the belly of the Zeus, and a blast erupted from the circle, extending outwards and decimating a hole in the Zeus.

Kearney felt his hair rise on end as the shock wave from the explosive red circle extended past the Arwing, shaking it on its end. "Was that a smart bomb?" He asked Fox.

Fox nodded, "Yep, we don't have many of them anymore because they came from my universe. We need to build the few that we have ourselves, and that was a very dangerous task without the tools we require. In fact, we had to convert the Great Fox, Arwing, and Wolfen fuel intake into a more commonly found source. The Brothers don't have much to use, so whatever we use on the Great Fox, will only be found on the Great Fox."

The Arwing went below the massive hole in the Zeus and gently floated up. Fox turned around in his seat to look at the three humans.

"You three go inside, I'll cover your escape from out here. Get back to this point once you've disabled the engines. Our job isn't to capture this ship, so feel free to damage it as much as possible."

A hatch opened in the Arwing's roof.

Conor nodded to Fox and jumped on top of the Arwing and then leapt into the inside of the Zeus. Azure followed suit, and it was Kearney's turn last.

He climbed up and stood on top of a flying space ship. _This has been an interesting day_, he thought to himself. The wind rustled his hair, and he made the mistake of looking down.

They were far above the treetops of the ancient forest, and as the trees rushed beneath him, Kearney got cold feet.

"Jump, rookie!" Conor yelled at him.

"Come on, Kearney, you can make it." Azure shouted above the rushing wind.

She held out her hand, and Kearney took a step forward and reached out his hand. The Zeus' hull was now floating upwards, and was easily seven feet higher than the Arwing.

Kearney took another step, crouched, and jumped as high as he could into the thin air, his feet miles above the ground. The Zeus ship's bottom got closer as Kearney left the relative safety of the Arwing.

The seven feet separating Kearney from death closed down to five, then three, and finally down to inches.

His palms hit the hard, cool metal of the Zeus and slipped for a bit, Kearney scrambled on his hands and elbows to find any sort of purchase on the slick floor.

Then Kearney felt two sets of arms and hands grab him around his armpits and hoist him up.

It was Azure and Conor. They hauled him into the cool air of the Zeus and lay down by his side, absolutely exhausted by the effort. They stayed on the ground for a moment, recovering, then Conor stood up.

"We've got to get moving. They will have sent people down here for repairs, and I don't want them to know we're here just yet."

Kearney and Azure got up and brushed themselves off, then pulled out their weapons; Kearney's blaster and sword, Azure's katana, and Conor's dual SMGs.

"Let's head straight to the Engine room," Conor said, "do some real damage to this ship. If the schematics Fox showed me are correct, we need to go that way." He pointed to the right hand hallway, then started walking, SMGs held at the ready.

Azure shrugged to Kearney, "let's go."

When they started walking, a rather urgent question came over Kearney.

"So what exactly are we fighting here?"

Conor turned around, shock apparent on his face.

"You haven't even been told what we've been up against?"

Kearney shrugged, "It's been a very busy day, and my first one here awake."

Conor peered around the closest corner and let out a long low whistle, "Speak of the devil, Kearney. Here's one of those bastards now." He waved to Kearney to move up, "Take a good look at this son of a bitch; we call our enemies 'the swarm'."

Kearney peered around the corner, greeting his eyes was one of the most disgusting creatures he had ever seen.

It was around four and a half feet tall and bloated; it was black and purple, with no hair covering it and only a loin cloth to keep this book decent enough for Nintendo. It was focused on a panel at the wall with a short, spiked club next to it.

"Urrgh, that thing is hideous." Kearney whispered.

Azure nodded. "Yeah, but that isn't the worst part. Don't let _any_ of the swarm touch you, if they do your skin will become clammy and the swarm will take your form. It changes itself into a stronger version of you, with everything you can do it doing better.

While Kearney and Azure discussed the swarm, Conor snuck up on the aforementioned swarm. He put aside one of his SMGs and reached down to his calves, from one he pulled out a curved knife. As quietly as possible, Conor approached the swarm from behind.

"That's horrible" Kearney said as Azure finished her explanation. "Is there really no way to tell them apart?"

"Nope, no way other than that they don't have the subject's memories."

At that point a screech echoed through the hall the swarm was in. Kearney and Azure rushed in to see two Conor's staring each other down, each mimicked the other perfectly, from the knife and gun in their hands to the stance.

Azure pointed her katana at the Conor on the left.

"Remember what I told you, Kearney?"

Kearney readied his sword and gun, pointing them at both Conors. "Yeah, they copy everything about you except for your memories."

Then it came to him.

"I have to ask them a question only Conor would know?"

Azure nodded, then eyeballed the two Conors, "This is a test isn't it? A way of teaching Kearney?"  
Both Conors nodded and smirked.

"Maybe." They said at the exact same time.

Kearney was unsettled by that and had to think for a moment, then he remembered what Fox had told Azure earlier.

"Why were you set to guard duty on the Great Fox?"

The Conor on the right swore and pulled his knife around to slash at Kearney.

Out of the corner of his eye Kearney saw the blade and ducked, the curved knife cut through the air above his head, barely missing him. Expecting resistance, the Conor to the right stumbled forward and was easily taken down by Azure's swift blade.

The Conor who attacked screeched as the Katana bit into his back, he fell to the ground and writhed around as his lifeblood left his body. Then he grew still, and blood seeped out of his wound, the blood was velvet black. It looked as if the shadows themselves were melting out of his back. When the blood stopped flowing he turned black, and back into the ugly swarm, then he melted into thin air.

The other Conor walked over, "That guy didn't deserve my good looks, thanks for choosing right, that would've been awkward otherwise. Most swarm will try to attack if they don't know the question, but how did you know I was on the Great Fox?"

Kearney shrugged, "Fox told us."

Conor re-sheathed his blade and picked up his SMG, "Well let's keep moving to the engines, maybe we can take out a few others on the way there. Also, one other thing you might want to know, they match your weapons too. So if you have a really special weapon, don't get touched, those weapons retain all of the original's traits."

Kearney looked down at his hip sheath, holding the slightly blued steel blade. It didn't appeal to him to have his own sword be killing him.

As they walked Kearney asked Conor about his firearms, "I've only seen medieval weapons, how do you have guns?"

Conor looked around a corner, then walked on.

"My friends and I were going out shooting the day the box found me. I was carrying the case our guns were in when the box took me. The brothers don't have the technology to make more guns, but we have the resources to make bullets. Considering I was the only one who can fire these proficiently, so I was allowed to keep them. They remind me of my past life, and focus my energies towards the battle at hand."

They got to the end of another hallway and peered around the corner, another swarm was standing at its consol. Conor nodded to Kearney and whispered to him, "You take out this one, get a first kill under your belt."

Kearney steeled himself and snuck around the corner. Each step he took sounded like a hammer blow. His mouth grew dry as he got closer and he licked his lips. The swarm grunted and turned around at the last second, feeling some sixth sense that an enemy was nearby. The only thing it saw was a single flash of steel as Kearney's blade cut straight through it.

Its head rolled on the ground like a soccer ball before dissolving. Kearney looked up from the behead swarm at Conor and Azure.

"How was tha-?"

From behind him came another swarm screech, and when he turned around a second swarm was at the end of the hallway running away.

Conor and Azure ran out from their cover and sprinted after it, Kearney hot on their heels.

"We can't let him sound the alarm!" Azure yelled.

They made up ground swiftly on the short swarm as it tried to run away. When they got close, the swarm stopped and reached for a switch on the wall.

"Oh no you don't!" Conor said while bringing up his SMGs. The firearms spit their bullets, and two holes appeared in the swarm's head.

It clutched the switch on the wall and tried to stay on its feet. As it lost its strength it slowly sunk to the ground, pulling the switch down with it.

Klaxons blared in the Zeus, alerting the swarm to their presence.

Kearney swore, "This isn't good."

Azure looked around warily.

"Maybe we should hurry to the engine room, it doesn't matter if they see us now."

The swarm beside them let out a gurgle as it dissolved.

Conor looked down the halls warily, as if he expected the swarm to already be after them.

"Yeah, we need to hurry."

He started jogging down the hall and hung a left.

Azure looked at Kearney and shrugged, they were starting to run after Conor when they heard him yell and sprint back into the hall. He turned the corner and rushed back to Azure and Kearney.

He sprinted straight at them and tackled them to the ground.


	8. Chapter 8: And into the fire

Above their heads passed the stinging wind of laser fire. Conor turned over and unloaded both his clips down the hall, bullets spraying everywhere and hot cartridges hitting Kearney's face.

When it stopped, Kearney looked up and saw a pile of bodies down the hall, all of them swarm. He saw their bodies and weapons dissolve, giving him chills down his spine.

Conor got up from on top of them.

"Sorry guys, are either of you hit?"

Kearney looked at Azure who was checking herself for damage. Then he looked down and saw some blood on his left arm. It oozed out of a long cut on the shoulder.

Seeing his own blood made Kearney's hair stand on end.

"My arm?" he said in shock.

Conor looked down at it, "Damn, Kearney, that's a nasty scratch. You okay?"

Kearney stared at his arm in shock, not saying anything for what felt like minutes. Then Conor took a bit of his own shirt and ripped it, then tied tightly it around Kearney's arm, stinging him, but stifling the blood loss.

Kearney shook himself out of the stupor and looked at Conor, "Why didn't I feel it? Shouldn't I know if I've been shot?"

Conor nodded, "It was the adrenaline, haven't you ever been in a fight before? Nothing hurts until afterwards."

From past experiences, Kearney was forced to agree.

They heard footsteps down the hall the swarm had come from, like a steady tapping it alerted them to approaching danger.

The trio picked themselves off the ground and hurriedly recovered their dignity. Conor decided to take the break to reload his guns.

"We need to get closer," he said, "take them at close range instead of long range."

They walked quietly up to the corner and listened intently for the footsteps.

The tapping was getting closer, increasing in magnitude and speed.

Azure raised her katana.

"I've got this."

She began to rub a button on her katana's hilt.

When the footsteps couldn't be any more than ten feet away, Azure turned her body into the corridor and pressed the button on the hilt.

The katana suddenly shot out of the hilt and flew down the hallway trailing a wire and causing a lot of squishy sounds to be heard by Conor and Kearney.

When the squishy sounds stopped, Azure relaxed her body and deftly flicked her wrist. The katana blade returned to the hilt with a click, and she pulled down a small protruding metal piece until it snapped into place. The katana had the swarm's black blood spattered all over it, but with another flick of Azure's wrist, the blood was flung onto a nearby wall.

Kearney and Conor poked their heads out into the hall and took a look.

In a line, on the ground, was the bodies of ten swarm. They all contained the same wounds, a sword shaped hole in their skulls.

"How did you do that?" Kearney asked in amazement.

Azure smiled mysteriously, "It's spring loaded, when I press the button, the powerful spring shoots my blade forward. This took a lot of practice to get right, but it is so worth it when the time comes."

While Azure explained the blade, Conor checked the swarm's dead bodies before they dissolved.

"These are all warrior swarm, they have heavier armor and weapons. Must have been sent to find us." He stood up and let the bodies dissolve. "Counting the five I killed, there should be around thirty five warriors remaining in here, not counting the piloting or engineering crews. We need to hurry, but keep your eyes open, don't let any of those idiots surprise us."

The three of them took off down the hallways with Conor leading the way, any swarm in front of the group quickly fell to Conor's infallible aim. Any swarm that thought they could get behind the trio was sorely mistaken when they were cut down by Kearney's blaster, or Azure's fast katana.

Around five minutes later, and what seemed like an Arwing full of swarm guts later, Conor stopped in front of a door and caught his breath. Behind the door there was a powerful thrumming.

"Here's the engines." Conor heaved out, "I'll make sure there's none in there, you guys watch my back."

Conor had run out of bullets to one of his SMGs a few corridors back, and had only a half clip left to his second. The dejected SMG hung at his side, too valuable to be left behind. Conor still hadn't taken off his cloak, or redrawn his knives, which intrigued Kearney.

The engine door burst open as Conor kicked it in and ventured through with gun sight held up to his eye.

Inside were five swarm with tools in their pudgy hands. When they saw the gun pointed at them, they dropped their tools and held their hands as high in the air as they could go. One of them began its screech, not loudly to draw attention, but questioningly.

Conor turned his gun around and fired a bullet straight through its head. The swarm crumpled to the ground completely silent, leaking its black blood all over the floor while it dissolved.

Conor pointed the gun at each swarm in turn and dropped them with one bullet each, sending them all to hell.

Kearney looked at Conor in disgust, "They had surrendered, why did you kill them."

Conor popped out his clip and checked the bullet count, "Three things. First, we don't have supplies for prisoners. Second, we don't have room to take them back. Third, the last time we took prisoners, the guards were killed and the swarm took their place, it took over a month to track down all the swarm. This is the standard operating procedure now."

Azure and Kearney walked into the room and closed the door behind him, the engines inside made so much noise Kearney didn't even hear the door close. Now they were yelling to be heard, but even then it was difficult to make out the words.

"So how do we take the engines out, they look too powerful to swing a sword through them." Kearney yelled.

Conor reached down to his boots and pulled out one of his knives, "Like this." He shouted. The white haired gunner hit a few buttons on a control panel, then pried the cover off with his knife. He spliced a few wires together, then closed the panel again.

Looking to Kearney and Azure Conor, resheathed the knife and hoisted his SMG. "The engines will die in around five minutes; we need to get out of here!" Then his eyes widened and he pointed behind Kearney and Azure and yelled at them, "DUCK!"

Kearney hit the ground and heard something whistle above his head, he looked to the left and saw Azure barely avoid a haircut.

Behind him he heard the whistling again and instinct took over his body. He rolled to the right. Where he was a second ago was impaled by a massive blade.

Conor opened fire on the owner of the sword, shooting small bursts so Kearney and Azure could get up on their feet. As Kearney did, he got a good look at their attacker.

He was tall and muscular, a powerfully built man. In his hand he lofted an impressive broadsword like a toy, and armor covered most of his body.

Kearney and Azure raised their weapons as Conor unloaded his last bullets into the man's armor, continually forcing the man to defend his vulnerable face. When the gunfire stopped, Conor dropped the SMG to the ground, and his black cloak followed.

Under his cloak, Conor looked like he could outfit an army. He had pistols in holsters under his armpits and on his hip. Along the shoulders were tiny knives in pouches, clearly meant to be thrown. On his legs were two small Uzis in calf holsters, and in his boots were his dual curved knives.

The man who attacked them stopped protecting himself and looked up, he hefted his sword to his shoulder and opened his mouth to speak.

"I am t- ea- mm- sa-, st- f- the- fm- of- t-rr- Ke! Fear me!"

The whine of the engines had blown away his words.

Conor cupped a hand to his ear, "WHAT?!"

"I AM THE mrrfffgll gr- too- rem-! FEAR ME!

While the man was distracted by yelling louder than the engines, Conor slid up to Kearney and Azure's side. "This guy apparently took the form of Ike, one of our top warriors. His broadsword is a son-of-a-bitch to be hit by. His armor covers so much of him, so my guns won't do much, mostly just a distraction for you two to get him with your swords."

The man had finished yelling, and looked at the trio maliciously, daring them to say he had not shouted loud enough.

Kearney holstered his blaster and decided to mock the man further, "WHAT?!"

The man sighed and shook his head exasperatedly. Now he was shouting as loud as humanly possible.

"I AM THE SWARM COMMANDER SATUNE, THIEF OF THE FORM OF THE WARRIOR IKE. I FORCED THE GREAT WARRIOR HIMSELF TO FLEE! I AM THE COMMANDER ABOARD THIS SHIP! FEAR ME!"

Conor shrugged, "Okay."

With hands that blurred in the action, Conor pulled his pistols out of his armpit holsters and began pulling the triggers, unleashing a hail of bullets at the swarm-man.

Satune roared in annoyance as sparks lit off the armor covering his arms and chest.

"HA!" he yelled "YOUR WEAPONS ARE LIKE FLIES TO ME!"

Satune swung his sword at Conor, who was forced to drop his pistols and roll to the right. As he came out of the dodge roll, the Uzis seemed to magically appear in his hands and began to fire.

The swarm commander held his sword over his face and deflected the small caliber projectiles upwards into the ceiling.

He then began to walk towards Conor, who continued to spray the bullets towards Satune's head, effectively blinding him.

Conor looked to Kearney and mouthed the word 'three'.

Kearney understood the idea and held up his unladen hand, holding up three of his fingers. Then put them down individually, to two, then one. As his last finger curled into his fist, Conor stopped firing and backed up.

Kearney rushed straight in and slashed through Satunes armor to cut his ribs. Black blood burst out of the wound and gushed down the armor.

Satune roared in pain and swung blindly at Kearney who was unable to dodge and was hit by the flat side of the blade. His armor may protected Kearney from cuts, but this hit smashed his ribs and flung him off to the side. Kearney's head hit the engine and stars danced in front of his eyes, the pain spiking through his body nearly immobilizing him.

"Damn it" Kearney spat out.

Satune smiled grimly, and charged at Kearney, sword stretched out in front of him.

Kearney saw the light reflect off of the broadsword; saw Satune rushing towards him, eager to finish off the downed ginger swordsman.

Then Azure was in front of him, deflecting Satune's sword up with a well-placed upwards slash. Then she turned on the spot and weaved a web of steel into Satune's armor, scoring gouts of blood with each hit.

Satune clumsily turned himself around and attempted to backhand Azure, but she ducked under his arm and slashed twice at his shoulder and then jabbed her sword into his leg.

Satune pivoted, driving Azure's katana out of her hands, then punched her squarely in her gut. The sheer power of the hit sent Azure flying into the air and crashing painfully next to Conor, who had just brought his throwing knives out.

Conor brought his hands down, and the knives flew towards Satune's head. Two stuck in his cheek, leaving saliva and blood dripping freely from his mouth.

Satune then turned ominously towards Conor, the sword in his hands deflecting the next volley of knives.

Conor backed up tentatively, his hands raised for another throw, only holding Satune back by his fear of the knives entering his unprotected eyes and blinding him.

Kearney gripped his side and watched in horror as Azure lay on the ground holding her stomach, and Conor prepared for his final throw of the dice.

Anger flooded through Kearney's bloodstream, not unlike the frustration he felt earlier today with the Arwing.

He got up, gripping his splitting side, and retaking his sword.

The swarm grinned maliciously, feeling that triumph was his for the taking. But he was distracted by the perceived threat of Conor, and didn't see Kearney stand up.

Kearney looked at satune's back and imagined where his sword would go, imagined the flesh parting as his blade cut through muscular sinews and veins. And he began to run towards Satune.

Conor noticed Kearney, and threw his final knife towards the body of Satune, the knife deflected off the armor and skidded to the side. Lying uselessly on the ground.

Satune laughed as Conor looked hopelessly up into his face.

Then the laugh was cut off into a gurgle, as Kearney's blade sprouted from his gut.

If the cuts had been like flies before, this was the wasp that ended him.

Satune fell to the ground and dissolved in a painful scream of black nothingness.

Kearney fell to the ground as well, but fought to remain conscious. Pain spots flashing in and out of his vision, his ribs feeling like they would throw themselves out of his chest. A pain in itself to breath.

Conor walked over to Azure and picked her off of the ground, "you okay, Cipher."

She tenderly helped herself up, then grabbed at her stomach again, "I should be fine, what about Kearney?"

Conor walked over to his weapons and replaced them in their holsters with a grim look on his face, "I don't know if he will make it. We only have a minute or two before the engines start to fail, so let's get Kearney and scram. Hopefully you're okay enough to take out any swarm we run into.

Kearney began to feel his eyes droop, and drowsiness overcame his adrenaline. He slowly gave in to the welcoming blackness of a calm sleep.


End file.
